H-Classics: characterizing the concept of citation classics through H-index

Abstract

Citation classics identify those highly cited papers which are an important reference point in a research field. To identify a paper as a citation classic we have to fix a citation threshold value. Usually, this threshold value should not be the same for all research fields because each field presents its respective citation pattern. Studies of citation classics in the literature define particular criteria and methods to set citation thresholds, which are often set arbitrarily and designed ad-hoc, and do not allow the scientific community to validate and compare their results. In this paper we introduce the concept of H-Classics to overcome this problem and provide scientific community a standardization of key constructs. We present a new and systematic method to identify citation classics. This identification method of highly cited papers is based on the H-index and thank to the properties of H-index it is sensitive to the own characteristics of any research discipline and also its evolution. Therefore, the concept of H-Classics allows to systematize search procedure of citation classics for any field of research.